Inspired by Chris Marker's acclaimed short film La Jetee
(which is included on the DVD Short 2: Dreams), 12 Monkeys
combines intricate, intelligent storytelling with the uniquely
imaginative vision of director Terry Gilliam. The story opens
in the wintry wasteland of the year 2035, where a virulent plague
has forced humans to live in a squalid, oppressively regimented
underground. Bruce Willis plays a societal outcast who is given
the opportunity to erase his criminal record by "volunteering"
to time-travel into the past to obtain a pure sample of the deadly
virus that will help future scientists to develop a cure. But in
bouncing from 1918 to the early and mid-1990s, he undergoes
an ordeal that forces him to question his own perceptions of
reality. Caught between the dangers of the past and the
devastation of the future, he encounters a psychiatrist (Madeleine
Stowe) who is initially convinced he's insane, and a wacky mental
patient (Brad Pitt in a twitchy Oscar-nominated role) with links
to a radical group that may have unleashed the deadly virus. Equal
parts mystery, tragedy, psychological thriller, and apocalyptic drama,
12 Monkeys ranks as one of the best science fiction films of the '90s,
boosted by Gilliam's visual ingenuity and one of the finest
performances of Willis's career. --Jeff Shannon